a collection of forgetmenots
by MintiNeko
Summary: Chihiro may not remember her trip to the bath house, but that doesn't mean its effects are not present. Nor does it mean that she will forget forever. What happens after.


**AN:** So, I rewatched the movie a few nights back and came up with this little piece. I find the fact that Chihiro doesn't remember what happened (dub aside) to be horribly sad, but after Zeniba's opinion on the matter, there's always hope for her. And Haku said they'd meet again.

Here's my take on what happens next.

* * *

After she comes to that small town, Chihiro notices changes within herself that she does not understand.

She can't explain why, after years of eating it without any ill effect, she gets sick to her stomach at the mere thought of eating pork. It's not even a gradual change; when her mother serves tonkatsu for the first time since they moved, Chihiro barely swallows a first bite before spitting it right back out, feeling bile rise up her throat and her stomach flip-flop back and forth, twisting and turning in protest.

"Chihiro, are you all right?" asks Yuuko in concern, watching her daughter push away her plate, shuddering and looking like she's about to be sick.

"I'm not that hungry, Mom." says Chihiro, using her chopsticks to push the cutlets as far away from her as possible without pushing them straight off the plate.

"Don't be silly, less than an hour ago you were heckling me about when your dinner would be ready and now you're not hungry?"

Chihiro doesn't answer, nibbling at her salad instead.

"Don't scold her Yuuko; maybe she's not in the mood for pork." Akio picks at one of the cutlets, looking slightly green. "For that matter, I'm not really all that interested either."

It comes as a great relief to Chihiro that even her mother reluctantly agrees that she doesn't quite have a taste for pig flesh either, and pork becomes conspicuously absent from the Ogino household's menu.

But why she is relieved, she can't explain.

* * *

She can hardly explain away her favorite hair tie, the one that gleams despite being made of nothing but wholesome thread, the one she wears when she needs a little more support. Her mother asks her, somewhat suspiciously, where Chihiro got it in the first place.

"My friends." is the answer that springs from her lips. She doesn't know where it came from; only that it is true. In any case, it's enough that her mother doesn't ask any further questions, but drives her to her new school and kisses her goodbye.

"I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends," says Yuuko, watching Chihiro open the passenger door and stare out at the new building, but not get out. "Everything will be all right."

"Maybe." says Chihiro. She steps out of the car, one hand tightly clutching her backpack strap, the other reaching towards the band in her hair.

The first morning goes by slowly, but well enough. The teachers are good, the other girls friendly. When lunch time comes, two of them ask Chihiro to join them. They introduce themselves as Sachi and Riku, born and raised in this little town, knowledgeable in all its secrets and more than willing to share.

They ask if she's seen the shrines.

"I think so," says Chihiro, recalling tiny little houses and the soft, shadowy figures that must dwell within.

"Good. Everyone here pays special attention to them, so it would be silly if you didn't at least see them," says Sachi.

"They say the spirits come into the town sometimes," adds Riku, whispering in the conspiratorial ways of ten-year-old girls. "And they make _weird _stuff happen."

Chihiro leans forward, an answering smile on her lips, "Tell me."

Her hair band gleams in the light.

* * *

Her sudden work ethic is as much as surprise to her as it is to her parents.

She starts helping around the house. Nothing too big, but she cleans up whenever it's necessary, does her own laundry, scrubs the tiles in the bathroom. Little chores that once seemed so hard and unappealing become part of her weekly routine, just a few minutes that makes a big difference around her.

Despite their confusion, her parents approve, and praise her for becoming so diligent.

She thinks, _It's not so bad; I've done worse. _

What she has done that was worse, she can't say.

Even odder, every now and then, when she's washing dishes in the kitchen, she'll look out the window that overlooks the backyard and see a small weasel staring right back at her, with shiny black eyes and reddish fur. It usually disappears right after being spotted, but Chihiro swears that in the split second before it leaves, it winks right at her.

* * *

She can't explain her sudden love and respect for nature. Before, she could look and appreciate, but did no more.

Now, Chihiro sees flickers of…not quite life, but something important, within everything. She's never been very religious, but has always loved stories of spirits and magic, and thinks the atmosphere of the town must nurture this love in ways she doesn't fully understand.

She takee to picking up trash whenever she sees it, no matter how disgusting. She volunteers for clean ups, yells at anyone who can't find in themselves to care.

Her parents are bemused by her sudden passion, but consider it far more appealing that her prior apathy.

Even stranger, the natural world seems fully aware of her passions. Once, on a school trip to a great river (which was said to be horribly polluted until quite recently), she swears that, staring down into the murky depths, she can see the face of an old man, shriveled with age, smiling back up at her.

"That's not surprising," says Sachi seriously when Chihiro mentions it. "This river is where people used to get a lot of power in the old days. It's practically a grandfather. That's why no one ever drowns. Who ever heard of a grandfather letting something like that happen?"

"But humans made him sick," argues Riku. "He must be at least a little angry."

"Nah, we cleaned him up, didn't we? He doesn't mind anymore."

Chihiro ignores the ensuring argument, crouching down on the dock, staring down into the water.

"Thank you," she whispers, though the reason escapes her.

The old man laughs.

* * *

The hardest phenomenon to explain is the boy.

He shows up during summer vacation, nearly two years after Chihiro's family have settled in. Chihiro finds him down by the abandoned park, right in front of the tunnel, crouching down in front of the statue, as if in conversation. However, the second he catches sight of her he immediately straightens up, a slight smile on his lips.

"Chihiro, it's good to see you." He gives a slight bow that Chihiro returns, feeling well out of her depth. She wonders if he's one of the boys from her new junior high; it's big enough that she doesn't know many people outside of her class, and she's too shy to really talk to any of the boys. And she's pretty sure that she would remember this boy.

His hair is longer than most, and his clothes are more fitting for shrine work than play. Most striking, however, are his eyes; a cool shade of green that she has never seen on a person before, except on television.

"How do you know my name?" she asks, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. "I certainly don't know yours."

The strange boy simply smiles, ignoring her rudeness. "Yes, you do. You just don't remember it." He looks at the tunnel. "Do you know what this is?"

"An old park," says Chihiro petulantly; she's positive that she has never seen this boy before. "But no one goes in unless they have a death wish. Everyone in town says strange things happen if you do, that the spirits get angry if you do."

The boy turns back to her, still smiling. "Is that so? Do you believe that?"

Is he laughing at her? Chihiro flushes, and looks away. "N-no……yes," she says decisively, looking directly into his eyes. "There are shrines here. Statues of guardians scattered throughout the forest. Why wouldn't the park be their home? If that's the case, don't they have every right to be angry if humans disturb them?"

For one horrible instant, she thinks he _will_ laugh at her.

"I agree," he says, completely serious. "But they don't have a right to torment any humans that stumble through. Sending them on their way would be more than enough."

"Really? What makes you their authority?" Chihiro asks, taken aback by the sudden harshness in the boy's tone.

The boy smiles again, utterly disarming. "I know a lot about spirits."

"So do I."

"Do you?" The boy walks up to her. "Could you tell me, what, exactly, do you know?"

"Only if you tell me yours." says Chihiro, feeling herself blush.

"Deal." Much to her shock, the strange boy takes her hand and pulls it. "Let's go."

* * *

In almost no time at all, Chihiro warms up to him. It's frustrating that he still won't give her his name, but the stories he tells more than makes up for it. He tells her about a great bath house where the spirits go to relax, the witch who rules it and her child, who is as fat as Buddha, and the witch's twin, as kind as her sister is greedy. He tells her about a weasel girl, the boiler man, and a gentle spirit known only as No Face.

"I know I've heard those names somewhere," says Chihiro. They are sitting behind her house, a little ways down the hill. Chihiro fiddles with a blade of grass, very aware of the strange boy's eyes resting on her. "But I just—can't remember."

"Don't try too hard," the boy advises, lying out on his back, arms folded underneath his neck. "It'll come to you when it comes to you."

"Like your name?" Chihiro suggests archly.

"Like my name," agrees the boy, serenely ignoring Chihiro's dark scowl. It's clear that she won't be learning his name from him anytime soon.

"How do we know each other anyway? Where are you from?" asks Chihiro, instead.

He ignores the first question, but answers the second. He tells her that he stays with his godfather, who lives fairly isolated from the world. There isn't much to do, so he goes out exploring the rest of the time, and wanders a great distance, searching.

"Searching for what?" asks Chihiro, lightly. "More stories?"

"Not quite," says the boy, and nothing more is said on the subject.

It's late afternoon when they head back down the path to the tunnel.

"I should be getting back to Kamaji now," says the boy. "I'm really glad I saw you again, Chihiro."

"It was fun talking to you. But you really should tell me your name; I feel bad not knowing it," says Chihiro.

The boy shakes his head. "It's not important right now. Goodbye, Chihiro." He sets off through the tunnel.

"Watch out for the spirits!" Chihiro calls.

"I always do," comes the boy's voice, faintly.

Chihiro returns home that night a mixture of feelings; frustration, amusement, curiosity, and oddly enough, happiness and relief.

* * *

Chihiro grows up.

She gets older and wiser (prettier too, or so she hopes) and she's starting to understand things.

In particular, she understands that what goes on around her has an explanation that she knows, but can't remember. Chihiro accepts this knowledge, and stops trying to explain.

She sees faces in the river.

Pays her respects to the shrines and the trees.

Avoids pork like the devil and champions prevention of animal cruelty and protection of the environment with a ferocity that surprises everyone.

The rest of the time, Chihiro concentrates on being a teenager, trying to put off adulthood for a while longer.

She studies hard, sometimes pulling all-nighters to make a deadline.

Eats ice cream with Sachi and Riku.

Discusses parents and careers as professors of mythology.

Dates a couple boys, has her first kiss, but all with the knowledge that they are not and will not be her first love. She doesn't know if it's because she already had a first love or if she's just being incredibly picky.

The boy becomes a fixture in Chihiro's life. He shows up at odd intervals throughout the following years, and seldom stays for very long, but always has new stories to tell. Chihiro always enjoys his visits; other than his refusal to give his name, he is wonderfully polite and kind, a far cry from most of the others at her school. But when the visit is over, he always slips back through the tunnel, and as tempted as Chihiro is to follow, she always holds back.

* * *

She graduates from high school, passes Tokyo University's entrance exams with flying colors. The day before she is to leave for Tokyo, she walks down to the tunnel, alone.

Staring into the darkness before her, Chihiro wonders, not for the first time, if there is more than just a park behind the tunnel. She must think so; otherwise she wouldn't be here now.

"Hey, it's me, Chihiro," she begins, hesitant and feeling more than a little silly. "I'm leaving now. I've been accepted to Tokyo University, so you won't be seeing much of me for the next few years. But I'm going to come back." She pulls the end of her ponytail, trying to put into words what she wants to say.

"Look," she says at last, "I know you have something to do with some of the things that have been going on with my family ever since I moved. I don't know if it's just you, or you and your friends or what. But I…" she tilts her head to the side. "I want to thank you, whatever you did. It's helped a lot. And again, I'll be back."

Nothing answers her from within the blackness, but she doesn't expect it to.

"Good bye." And she walks away.

For the next two years, Chihiro studies and lives the life of a university student, acing the tests and making the grades. She goes home on brief trips, but never has a chance to leave her parents to search for the boy.

Away from her home, memories that have been kept beneath the surface swell and threaten to burst in her mind, only needing the slightest trigger. She starts looking up old myths and legends, searching for the bath house the boy so frequently described, positive that she will find _something_.

She never does. Even reading about river gods, while promising, does not provide the catalyst necessary to unlock what she needs to know.

It's by pure accident that she remembers, during a meeting of her environmental club, organizing a protest against draining a well-loved river to fill with stores and apartments.

"After all," says the club head, "We don't want any more destruction like the Kohaku River, do we?"

It's all Chihiro needs.

Everything comes back, not in a rush, but over the course of the next few days, memories unravel within her, from Haku to Lin to the river spirit to every little event that occurred, each one still fresh and clear. It's almost enough to take her completely out of her studies, but Chihiro manages to hold herself together, and starts to prepare a trip home for upcoming Golden week.

* * *

She sets off for the woods almost immediately after returning home, with the excuse that Tokyo has tired her and she 'needs the fresh air'.

She races down the path, not even stopping to pay the shrines their respects. All she can think of is the tunnel and _please, please be here Haku…_

He is waiting for her. Looking at him, into his smiling face, Chihiro wonders how she could ever have not recognized him.

"Haku!" she throws her arms around him, holding him close, as if he might disappear.

"Chihiro," he whispers, hugging her tightly. "I told you that you'd remember my name."

"I didn't think I would," she laughs shakily, tears running freely down her face. "After all we went through, and I didn't remember any of it. How could you be so sure?"

"Zeniba. She said you would, but that you would have to find it yourself, that I wouldn't solve anything by trying to force you. And you've seen us, you still have Zeniba's token," he gently touches the band in her hair. "So it was only a matter of time." He pulls at her hand, "Come, they're waiting for you. Lin, Kamaji—everyone."

"Except Yubaba," corrects Chihiro, brushing her tears away, still laughing.

"Except Yubaba," concedes Haku. "And even she won't care too much, so long as you don't disrupt the customers." He tries to bring her towards the tunnel, but Chihiro hesitates.

"I do have to get home before dinner," she says, "And the last time my family went through here we lost a few days…"

"Chihiro, I promise; we'll make sure you get home on time," says Haku, squeezing her hand for emphasis—and reassurance. "Trust me."

Chihiro smiles up at him, "I always do."

Together, they step between worlds.


End file.
